Homeland Security subcommittee hears testimony alleging China-linked illegal marijuana networks across U.S.

At a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Accountability, federal, state and private witnesses described what they called an extensive network of illegal marijuana cultivation run by transnational criminal organizations with links to Chinese nationals and Chinese money-laundering networks.

Donnie Anderson, director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, told the subcommittee the issue was “not only a public safety interest, but also the interest of America's national security.” Anderson said Oklahoma’s liberal medical-marijuana framework and inexpensive farmland attracted large-scale illegal grows and that state records show a stark mismatch between licenced production and reported retail sales. Anderson cited a figure of 87,210,960 registered plants and said about 85,000,000 plants are “unaccounted for,” which he and others at the hearing described as evidence of diversion to a black market worth an estimated $153,000,000,000 in missing product and proceeds.

Paul Larkin, senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the panel that legalization in many states had not eliminated the black market. “The black market has not disappeared even though a majority of states in the United States now have approved either medical or recreational use marijuana programs,” Larkin said, adding that organized criminal groups exploit regulatory gaps to run large operations and to finance other crimes.

Chris Urban, managing director at Nardello & Company and a former senior DEA official, urged a coordinated federal response and said law-enforcement priorities should treat large illegal grow operations as components of broader transnational criminal networks. “It is essential to use the federal racketeering, money laundering, continuing criminal enterprise prosecutions to target the leadership and command and control levels of these operations,” Urban testified, and recommended a multiagency task force that would include DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, FBI (including counterintelligence), IRS, Fish and Wildlife and state and local partners.

Witnesses and members described recurring patterns: straw ownership to hide real operators; use of Chinese-language encrypted platforms such as WeChat for communications and payments that U.S. investigators said are difficult to subpoena or wiretap; recruitment and apparent coercion of foreign workers who live in crowded quarters and work long hours; and environmental damage through unauthorized water and electricity theft and use of banned pesticides. Anderson said his agency employs a single Mandarin-speaking agent, which he called “insufficient” given the frequent use of other Chinese dialects and the scale of operations.

Panelists provided examples and alleged consequences: homicides and violent incidents at grows in Oklahoma and other states; seizures of hundreds of thousands of plants on tribal lands in New Mexico; and prosecutions and indictments linking Chinese nationals to large shipments and money-laundering networks. Witnesses repeatedly argued that proceeds from illicit marijuana sales feed other criminal enterprises, including fentanyl distribution, human trafficking, and underground banking.

Recommendations offered to Congress included funding and mandating an interagency task force focused on Chinese transnational criminal organizations tied to cultivation and distribution networks; expanding racketeering and money-laundering prosecutions; improving financial-industry reporting and anti-money-laundering compliance related to Chinese underground banking methods; strengthening mechanisms to identify real parties in interest for property purchases and leases; and examining how current communications-law frameworks affect investigators’ ability to access evidence on platforms such as WeChat.

Votes at a glance: Representative Ramirez moved that the committee subpoena Secretary Kristi Noem; members then moved to table that subpoena motion and recorded a roll call. The motion to table was adopted by recorded vote (5 ayes, 3 noes). The roll call as read into the record: Miss Green — Aye; Mr. Strong — Aye; Mr. Ogles — Aye; Mr. Knott — Aye; Mr. Canadar — No; Mrs. Ramirez — No; Mr. Carter — No; Chairman Burkin — Aye. The committee recessed during the sequence of motions and returned to adopt the table motion.

The hearing record will remain open and witnesses were asked to respond to follow-up questions in writing. Several members urged greater public education about the alleged networks and asked the Committee to consider legislative steps to make ownership structures more transparent and to ensure federal task forces have the resources to pursue complex transnational cases.

Ending: Witnesses asked for urgent congressional action to fund coordinated investigations and to prioritize prosecutions that target leadership and financial networks rather than only low-level growers. Committee members indicated some bipartisan agreement on the need for greater federal involvement, while members disagreed about broader policy responses such as federal rescheduling or legalization. The hearing record will be open for additional submissions and the panel may receive further questions for the witnesses.